Hurricane Beryl: A Wake-Up Call for Strengthening Early Warning Systems in Caribbean

While the reduction in disaster-related deaths is a positive outcome, the economic toll of disasters continues to grow, especially for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like those in the Caribbean.

Hurricane Beryl, the earliest and strongest Category 5 hurricane on record in the Caribbean, serves as a stark reminder of the increasing intensity of tropical cyclones fueled by climate change. However, amid the devastation, there is a glimmer of hope: fewer lives were lost during Beryl compared to past hurricanes like Maria in 2017 and Ivan in 2004. This success is attributed to years of investment in strengthening early warning systems across the Caribbean, supported by regional and international bodies.

In a joint OpEd published in the Trinidad & Tobago Guardian, Kamal Kishore of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Elizabeth Riley of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), and Celeste Saulo of the World Meteorological Organization highlighted the critical need to continue enhancing multi-hazard early warning systems in the region. They emphasized the importance of the Early Warnings for All initiative, which aims to ensure that every person in the Caribbean is protected by such systems by 2027.

While the reduction in disaster-related deaths is a positive outcome, the economic toll of disasters continues to grow, especially for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like those in the Caribbean. The aftermath of Hurricane Beryl underscores this challenge, with over 11,000 people affected in the Grenadine Islands, and 90% of homes on Union Island in St. Vincent and the Grenadines destroyed or severely damaged.

The OpEd authors stressed that enhancing the physical, social, and economic resilience of SIDS is crucial, particularly as these nations have limited options to reduce disaster exposure due to their geographical constraints. They called on developed countries to fulfill their commitments to double climate adaptation financing to at least $40 billion annually by 2025 and to adequately capitalize the Loss and Damage Fund.

The recently adopted Antigua and Barbuda Agenda for SIDS, alongside global partnerships such as the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), are seen as vital resources for supporting Caribbean nations in building resilience. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and CDRI are collaborating to help countries identify vulnerabilities in their infrastructure systems.

The authors concluded with a call to action: the true legacy of Hurricane Beryl should be a global pivot from accepting disasters as inevitable to actively preventing them through sustained investment in disaster risk reduction. Without such efforts, each hurricane will continue to bring inevitable disaster, especially for the most vulnerable nations.